Letter to the Editor: Analysis of stroke patient migration for mechanical thrombectomy and changes in neurointerventional center size in Germany

• Published in: Neurological research and practice 2021-06, Vol.3 (1), p.32-32, Article 32
• Main Authors: Weber, Ralph, Bartig, Dirk, Krogias, Christos, Richter, Daniel, Hacke, Werner, Eyding, Jens
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Health care structure; Hospitals; Letter to the Editor; Neurointerventional center size; Patient migration; Stroke; Thrombectomy
• ISSN: 2524-3489; 2524-3489
• DOI: 10.1186/s42466-021-00131-2

To analyse nationwide changes in neurointerventional center size of all German hospitals performing mechanical thrombectomy (MT) in stroke patients from 2016 to 2019. Furthermore, we assessed cross-district patient migration for MT for the first time using hospitals' structured quality reports and German Diagnosis-Related Groups data in 2019. Number of hospitals performing more than 100 MT procedures/year doubled in Germany from 2016 (n = 36) to 2019 (n = 71), and these neurointerventional centers performed 71% of all MT procedures in 2019. The overall increase in MT procedures was largely driven by these high-volume neurointerventional centers with ability to perform MT 24/7 (121% increase as compared with 8% increase in hospitals performing less than 100 MT procedures/year). The highest cross-district patient mobility/transfer of stroke patients for MT was observed in districts adjacent to these high-volume neurointerventional centers with existing neurovascular networks. The substantial increase in MT procedures observed in Germany between 2016 and 2019 was almost exclusively delivered by high-volume stroke centers performing more than 100 MT procedures per year in established neurovascular networks. As there is still a reasonable number of districts with low MT rates, further structural improvement including implementation of new or expansion of existing neurovascular networks and regional tailored MT triage concepts is needed.